Dance Festival: 75th Anniversary Concert

In next weekend’s Dance Festival at San Diego State University, George Willis is doing a signature piece that he debuted in New York in 1972. Titled “Choreography Correspondence School,” the comic solo makes fun of the idea that anyone could learn choreography without being in a studio with other dancers.

The dance is laugh-out-loud funny, but Willis is absolutely serious about the need for dancers to have the tools they need to practice their art. As one of the first teachers in SDSU’s dance program, he worked for years to give dancers access to studios, teachers, peers and performance spaces.

When Willis came to SDSU in 1967, the dance program was in the physical education department (as at many universities around the country). Part of his mission was to have dance recognized as a performing art form — a milestone reached in 1993, when the program became part of the School of Music. The school is celebrating its 75th anniversary with performances throughout the spring.

Next weekend’s Dance Festival offers three different nights of programming and features 17 choreographers who have ties to SDSU, including the artists who formed the backbone of the dance program for decades: Willis, Patricia Sandback and Melissa Nunn. Other well-known names on the bill are Jean Isaacs, who has taught at SDSU; and grads Faith Jensen-Ismay, Tonnie Sammartano, Eric Geiger and Mary Reich.

There will also be work by recent graduates, among them Erica Buechner (2006), who struck out on her own with Sound Dance Company and won last year’s Music and Dance Alumni to Watch Award; and Martita Abril (2009), who worked last year in her native Tijuana under a young creator fellowship from the Mexican government and is now pursuing opportunities in New York.

Among the 50-plus artists who will perform, Tijuana’s acclaimed Lux Boreal is premiering a work created for it by dance program coordinator Joe Alter. Kris Apple, a music grad whose violin improvisations have enhanced a number of dance performances, will be part of the ensemble for a work by professor Leslie Seiters.

Appropriately, the show is taking place in the Dance Studio Theatre, which Willis battled to bring to a professional level.

“I wanted to get the studio theater up to a level where (it was) a spot that was comfortable for dance and would welcome dance,” says Willis, who ended up presenting more than 500 concerts in the theater and continued to manage it for several years after his retirement 10 years ago.

Sandback, who started at SDSU in 1972, says: “You could look at the growth of our program by looking at our studio theater. At first, we had just three little (light) trees, and you turned the lights on and off with a hand plug-in. Gradually over the years, the theater became more of a professional home and base. … Now we have an amazing projection system and an amazing sound system.”